Joshua F. Nokam
Joshua is a wanderer unwittingly-turned pirate. He grew up in the quaint town of Santalm on the small island of the same name in the East Blue, where he dreamed of one day writing a book of the world's greatest wonders. Personality Joshua is a very kind and gentle individual most of the time. He believes that peace should always be the overarching goal of humanity, and that the only things that aren't okay are those that interfere with others' peace. As strange as it may sound, Joshua doesn't believe in punishment, at least not in the typical sense. He claims that people should not be hurt for what they have done wrong, but that they should be treated however necessary to prevent them from doing it again. Said prevention can take the form of anything from convincing them what they did was wrong and not to do it, to making them too afraid of being 'taught' again to repeat the transgression...all the way to making sure they aren't capable of doing such a thing again of their own volition, one way or the other. Joshua has absolutely no problem enacting his concept of 'preventative education' himself, yet all the while he is beating down anyone he thinks is in the wrong, he staunchly claims to be a pacifist. Apparently he doesn't think he needs to abstain from all conflict himself to be a pacifist, rather he is perfectly happy making sure as many other people has possible cause nobody else harm. That being said Joshua will do whatever he can to avoid conflict if he doesn't think anyone around him deserves to be reformed, or if he can't solve the situation with violence at all. The thing that stands out the most about Joshua is is seemingly indomitable will, no matter what Joshua is doing at any given time he seems to always have unshakable confidence that he is in the right. While this may seem like absolute arrogance Joshua is more than willing to admit when he's wrong after the fact, and if at any point he thinks that what he is doing (or supposed to be doing) is wrong he won't try to justify it to himself, he simply won't do it. Even when he is, in fact, wrong being against him in any sort of test of morals or wills isn't a very fun brick wall to ram your head against. He is very often happy and is always willing to listen to or tell a joke, and loves to share stories of himself and others. He tends to smile most of the time, even when in pain, and tries to make others smile too. It's no easy feat to make Joshua truly angry, but when he is his normally bright and cheerful eyes turn completely cold and he shows nothing but contempt at the very least, or outright hatred for the object of his anger. When Joshua is angry his eyes seem to make even people who'd never truly be afraid of him flinch for at least a moment. A part of Joshua's whole view on karma and morals is that all people deserve equality, and as such he has no problem hitting women whatsoever. Now he's no woman beater, on the contrary Joshua would never hit someone he sees as weak or vulnerable, no matter who they were. However, if Joshua sees someone as capable of standing up for themselves he's willing to strike at them, no matter who they are either, and won't hold back at all if he considers them his equal or superior. This all does lead into the fact that if Joshua thought a woman was as strong as he was and needed it, he'd punch her right in her pretty face. Tying in with the whole thing is Joshua's love of animals and children. He lumps all children into "weak or vulnerable" category even if he doesn't consider them completely helpless, and all animals to an extent as well. He believes all children should be taken care of till they can stand completely on their own, and if a child is doing something wrong it's either an innocent mistake or it's because someone else screwed up for them along the line. Many animals of course can pose a threat to people, but Joshua always thinks of the fact that humans are sentient and most animals are not. He understands hunting is very often necessary and has nothing against hunting for sustenance, but otherwise he sees animals as weaker than humans in mind if not body, and so believes that one should not be hurt unless you are in immediate danger from it or it's your only chance of survival. Thanks both to his love of animals and his apparent-inner-peace animals seem to love Joshua just as much as he loves them, and many of them tend to approach him affectionately, even animals that are usually hostile or downright violent. Even though part of Joshua's lifelong dreams involve falling in love with the perfect woman, romance doesn't seem to be something he has any interest in. His drive to protect most of the women he sees (since, let's face it most women can't stand up for themselves physically as well as most men) and his exceedingly good looks tend to draw women who are interested in finding a man to him, but he's turned down every one of them so far. He always has one reason or another, but most of the time he claims it's because he's not ready to settle down yet, and doesn't believe in one-night stands. Joshua is usually very complementary of women and, since he considers himself completely unavailable he has no problem telling them exactly what he thinks about them, body or personality. He's been slapped many a time thanks to how many women misunderstand anything more than a simple compliment as flirting. When on the other side Joshua handles being flirted with in stride, but if a woman's advancements take on a more...'saucy' tone he becomes very flustered and doesn't know what to do. History Joshua's early life was probably the most influential step on his path to who he is today, even from when he first started school. He grew up in a town on the small island of Santalm, which was really too far off the radar to even justify the port it had. When he first started going to school Joshua noticed fairly quickly how many of the stronger or smarter kids picked on the weaker children who just wanted to go on with their lives, simply because they could. In a weird twist of insight Joshua knew that he didn't have the wisdom or the right to preach to the bullies about how what they were doing was wrong, so he decided to fight them over it instead. For quite a long time this almost always involved going up against multiple people who were stronger than him, but he kept trying no matter how many times he was beaten to a pulp. Even when Joshua got good enough to win most of the fights he got in nothing seemed to change, almost every time he stood between a bully and their victim, the bully would just come back when he wasn't around and be even more cruel than they were before. It wasn't until one of Santalm's worst incidents that Joshua realized what he was doing wrong. The island had a fair amount of resources to sustain it's people, but the only thing that really kept them comfortable was trading with some of the nearby islands for the things they didn't have enough of. Eventually a navy ship had to stop by Santalm to resupply and the captain of the ship happened to notice there was no sort of governmental oversight on the islands' trading at all. Despite how little interaction any of the islands ever had with the outside world at all, let alone the government they were still considered under it's influence. The captain decided to stay in the town for a while to set up proper tariffs on the islands' imports and exports so that everything would be 'properly in order' and as long as he was there he figured he may as well make sure the town itself fit his idea of order. There came a day that, like on many others, Joshua was involved in a skirmish with a few young ruffians. He won hands down against three other boys that were all bigger than him, but he didn't get much time to contemplate if they would learn from the beating before he was struck in the head by a cane. The captain of the marines who'd landed on the island was doing what he called his 'rounds' and had seen the fight. He reprimanded Joshua for his actions, telling him justice was to be meted out by those with the proper authority, like parents or officers, not some kid with a chip on his shoulder. He planned on giving Joshua a taste of his own medicine, maybe a beating like those he gave out would teach him his place. The strikes came no softer than they would have against any adult, and every time the cane connected with his body left him a welt. Luckily the beating didn't last long, Joshua was only struck five times before a hand got the cane at the crest of it's swing and held it back. The Captain demanded to know who had the nerve to stand in the way of an important lesson and turned to punish whoever could be so stupid, but stopped in his tracks at the sight of him. Joshua's savior was none other Glen "Fishtail" Kowitz, a pirate well-known for the speed at which he could weave back and forth towards an opponent to get an attack in, and one the marine captain had chased before. Kowitz told the captain he could stand to learn a few things himself and knocked him out with a single punch. Once the captain hit the ground Joshua thanked Kowitz for helping him, but he had to know why he'd helped him. After all Joshua's parents had always told him pirates were 'the scourge of the seas' and burned down villages for fun. Kowitz laughed and tousled Joshua's hair, assuring him that some pirates were like that, but certainly not all of them, and he shouldn't just believe any story about things he's never seen for himself. Kowitz had to admit though, that Joshua's suspicions were half right, at least in this situation. Kowitz had a reputation for being cruel and violent, and for a long time he really had been. However, about a year ago Kowitz had actually been tracked down by some marines, there was one ship he just couldn't escape. Kowitz's crew was outnumbered too heavily and they'd never had any hope of victory to begin with, but after they were defeated they weren't executed or taken prisoner. Instead the captain of the marines had untied Kowitz, handed him his sword...then socked him right across the face! Try as he might even with the advantage of a weapon Kowitz was soundly beaten once again. Completely humiliated in front of his crew and at the mercy of his enemies Kowitz demanded they not waste anymore of his time and get the execution over with, but the captain surprised him again by ordering a medic to patch him up. The two men stood staring at each other intently while the medic did his job without so much as moving a muscle. When the medic announced that he was finished the marine captain told Kowitz that if they ever met on the sea again he would kill him, and shouted at all of his men to pack up. Kowitz stood dumbfounded for the few minutes it took the marines to get everything in order and separate the two ships. Just as the marines were pulling away a smile crept up Kowitz's face and he began laughing hysterically. The moral of the story was completely lost on Joshua and he said as much, but Kowitz just laughed and patted his head before leaning down and whispering to him. "It hit me when he let me go...he was better than me, it wasn't that he was stronger or smarter than me, he was better. Here I was, a known murderous pirate, and all he did was give me a thrashin' an' leave me to think about it. I actually met him again at a pub down in Loguetown, he asked me if I'd been up to anymore mischief since then, and when I said no he actually believed me." The encounter definitely had an effect on Kowitz, he went on to detail how he kept meeting that marine at the pub and before long they became good buddies. The real way to teach someone a lesson wasn't just to beat them or up preach at them, you had to really shake their core and their belief in what they were doing, it took something different to change every person. Kowitz ended up staying around the island for a whole year, he didn't fight with the marines there anymore, but he wouldn't let them leave either. At first he stayed around to make sure the captain didn't abuse his power anymore, but eventually it was because he felt at peace there and the people actually liked him. After a few months of the occupation/counter occupation Kowitz ended up befriending the captain he'd saved Joshua from. After they'd been there for a year they left together, and Joshua finally felt like he understood the story. Neither retribution or mercy alone did much to change anyone, but using the right amounts of both made real justice, at least that was how he felt about it all. Over the next few years Joshua spread his strange mixture of beatings and friendship throughout the island until there really didn't seem to be much bullying anymore, among the kids at least. At that point he really had no reason to stay on the island anymore, he'd known for a long time what he wanted out of life, and that it couldn't be found sitting on one island his whole life. Joshua left a note to his parents in his room apologizing for leaving them and promising that he would "write that book" and bring the first copy back to them so they could read it, and left the island. His first destination was clear, he'd heard that Alexander Sivers was going to be executed soon at Loguetown. The execution of his first mate was the largest measure of closure the world was ever going to get, and he had to be their himself for the sake of his story. Dreams Joshua's ultimate goal is to one day find the perfect woman, settle down in the perfect place and raise a family that a bustling, prosperous community would grow up around, but only when he truly deserves it. To make sure Joshua truly deserves such happiness he intends to grow as strong as possible in his travels, knowing that if he can become one of the world's strongest men he could protect his family from anything. The other half of Joshua's ambitions are to travel the world, experience as many of the worlds greatest wonders and hardships as possible, before writing the world's greatest adventure story/autobiography about his travels. When his book is written he intends to save the first copy for his parents, and keep the original to show his children some day. Quirks Joshua can not use weapons in any capacity whatsoever, despite how strong his failure with weapons is it seems to mostly be a mental block, since it only applies to something he considers a weapon. For instance he could chop vegetables like a champ, but if he tried to stab someone with a knife he'd probably fall on it and kill himself. He can't even handle other people having weapons pointed at him very well. He's fine if they're industrial-sized weapons or machines like cannons, but he gets really scared when people use human-sized weapons against him. Strangely this doesn't seem to affect his battle prowess too much, when someone uses a weapon against him he gets panicky and scared, but still seems to dodge and counterattack in a way that makes every successful hit he strikes look like an accident. Joshua also seems to get afraid any time a woman get's more...amorous than simply flirting with him, the few times it's happened he completely shut down. Although some people would consider it a talent, Joshua is rather ashamed of the fact that he enjoys sewing and is really good at it. In fact he could be a tailor if he wanted to, that's why he always dresses so nicely even with modest funds. He has just enough machismo to want to keep the fact that he sews a secret. Powers and Abilities Joshua has no devil fruit abilities or formal training in martial arts, but he can be a terrifying opponent nonetheless. Even though he's not particularly bulky, he has monstrous strength for his size. Although nobody knows why, Joshua's muscles seem to grow much closer together than on a normal person, so much so that when his muscle-mass should be increasing from exercise or fighting they merely grow denser, becoming stronger but looking the same. Because of his strange musculature Joshua weighs a whopping 312 pounds while maintaining his lithe figure. There's not much method to his fighting style but there is some good science behind it, he moves as fast as he can whenever he is going to attack. And as basic knowledge of physics will tell you: Speed + Density = Power. In a way you could quite literally say Joshua hits like a train at his best. Relationships